Catharine H Echols
Associate Professor — Ph.D., University of Illinois

Contact
- E-mail: echols@austin.utexas.edu
- Phone: (512) 471-4879
- Office: SEA 5.220
- Office Hours: Tuesday 2:00-3:30 p.m., and by appointment
- Campus Mail Code: A8000
Interests
Language development
Biography
Dr. Echols plans to accept a graduate student for Fall 2021
Dr. Echols received her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in developmental psychology. Before joining the faculty at The University of Texas, she conducted postdoctoral research at Stanford University.
Dr. Echols' research explores the acquisition of language, and its interface with cognitive and social development. A major current focus is how children use social information—including gaze and other non-verbal cues, past accuracy, similarity, and knowledge of an individual’s motives—to evaluate the words and statements of others. A second focus, overlapping with the first, is the similarities and differences—across culture, language and socio-economic status—in the availability and use of linguistic and social information in language learning. These questions are being explored in an ongoing collaboration with colleagues at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil and in research with bilingual children in the United States. An additional research focus is how general problem solving skills promote the learning of word meaning and sentence structure.
Courses
PSY 379H • Honors Research II
42895 • Spring 2021
Meets W 2:00PM-5:00PM BUR 224
Hybrid/Blended
IIWr
PSY 359H • Honors Research I
41505 • Fall 2020
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM RLP 0.104
Hybrid/Blended
II
PSY 333P • Child Language
41978 • Spring 2020
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM SEA 3.250
Wr
PSY 333P • Child Language
41630 • Fall 2019
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM SEA 3.250
Wr
PSY 379H • Honors Research II
42630 • Spring 2019
Meets M 2:00PM-5:00PM SEA 3.250
IIWr
PSY 333P • Child Language
42788 • Fall 2018
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM SEA 3.250
Wr
PSY 359H • Honors Research I
42880 • Fall 2018
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM SEA 3.250
II
PSY 333P • Child Language
43120 • Fall 2017
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM SEA 3.250
Wr
PSY 379H • Honors Research II
43335 • Spring 2017
Meets M 2:00PM-5:00PM SEA 2.108
IIWr
PSY 333P • Child Language
43120 • Fall 2016
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM SEA 3.250
Wr
PSY 359H • Honors Research I
43205 • Fall 2016
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM SEA 4.242
II
PSY 333P • Child Language
43690 • Fall 2014
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM SEA 1.332
Wr
PSY 394S • Current Topics In Devel Psy
43950 • Fall 2014
Meets M 12:00PM-3:00PM SEA 1.332
PSY 379H • Honors Research II
44170 • Spring 2014
Meets M 3:00PM-6:00PM SEA 2.116
Wr
PSY 333P • Child Language
43735 • Fall 2013
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM SEA 3.250
Wr
PSY 359H • Honors Research I
43835 • Fall 2013
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM SEA 1.332
Wr
PSY 333P • Child Language
43275 • Fall 2012
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM SEA 3.250
Wr
PSY 394S • Lang, Cul, And Cognitive Devel
43510 • Fall 2012
Meets W 9:00AM-12:00PM SEA 1.332
PSY S333N • Cognitive Development
87726 • Summer 2012
Meets MTWTHF 1:00PM-2:30PM SEA 3.250
PSY 379H • Honors Research II
43360 • Spring 2012
Meets M 1:00PM-4:00PM SEA 2.116
Wr
C2
PSY 333P • Child Language
43160 • Fall 2011
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM SEA 3.250
Wr
PSY 359H • Honors Research I
43270 • Fall 2011
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM SEA 2.224
PSY S333N • Cognitive Development
87772 • Summer 2011
Meets MTWTHF 1:00PM-2:30PM SEA 3.250
PSY 333P • Child Language
43730 • Spring 2011
Meets MWF 11:00AM-12:00PM SEA 3.250
Wr
C2
PSY 394S • Lang, Cul, And Cognitive Devel
44000 • Spring 2011
Meets T 9:00AM-12:00PM SEA 1.332
PSY 333N • Cognitive Development
43115 • Fall 2010
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM NOA 1.102
PSY F333N • Cognitive Development
87110 • Summer 2010
Meets MTWTHF 1:00PM-2:30PM NOA 1.124
PSY 333P • Child Language-W
43875 • Spring 2010
Meets MWF 11:00AM-12:00PM SEA 2.108
C2
PSY 379H • Honors Research II-W
44025 • Spring 2010
Meets W 1:00PM-3:00PM SEA 4.242
C2
PSY 359H • Honors Research I
44215 • Fall 2009
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM SEA 3.250
PSY 333P • Child Language-W
43125 • Spring 2009
Meets MWF 11:00AM-12:00PM SEA 3.250
C2
PSY 394S • Current Topics In Devel Psy
43422 • Spring 2009
Meets F 12:00PM-3:00PM SEA 1.332
PSY 379H • Honors Research II-W
44180 • Spring 2008
Meets W 1:00PM-3:00PM SEA 4.242
C2
PSY 333P • Child Language-W
45040 • Fall 2007
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM SEA 3.250
C2
PSY 359H • Honors Research I
45170 • Fall 2007
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM SEA 3.250
PSY 379H • Honors Research II-W
43815 • Spring 2007
Meets W 1:00PM-3:00PM SEA 4.242
C2
PSY 359H • Honors Research I
44940 • Fall 2006
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM SEA 3.250
PSY 394S • Lang, Cul, And Cognitive Devel
45065 • Fall 2006
Meets W 9:00AM-12:00PM SEA 1.332
PSY 333P • Child Language-W
41455 • Spring 2005
Meets MWF 1:00PM-2:00PM SEA 3.250
C2
PSY 379H • Honors Research II-W
41615 • Spring 2005
Meets TH 2:00PM-4:00PM SEA 2.224
C2
PSY 359H • Honors Research I
42680 • Fall 2004
Meets F 1:00PM-4:00PM NOA 1.110
PSY 333P • Child Language-W
41070 • Fall 2003
Meets MWF 1:00PM-2:00PM SEA 2.108
C2
PSY 379H • Honors Research II-W
41245 • Fall 2003
Meets TH 3:30PM-6:30PM SEA 1.322
C2
PSY 359H • Honors Research I
40375 • Spring 2003
Meets T 2:00PM-5:00PM SEA 3.250
PSY 394S • Current Topics In Devel Psy
40525 • Spring 2003
Meets F 12:00PM-3:00PM SEA 1.332
PSY 333P • Child Language-W
40875 • Fall 2002
Meets MWF 11:00AM-12:00PM ECJ 1.214
C2
(also listed as LIN 373)
PSY 379H • Honors Research II
40260 • Spring 2002
Meets F 1:00PM-3:00PM BEN 318
PSY 394S • Language And Conceptual Dev
40385 • Spring 2002
Meets W 2:00PM-5:00PM MEZ 402
PSY 359H • Honors Research I-W
41225 • Fall 2001
Meets W 3:00PM-6:00PM UTC 1.136
C2
PSY 333D • Intro To Developmental Psy
39855 • Spring 2001
Meets MWF 2:00PM-3:00PM UTC 4.134
PSY 333P • Child Language-W
39870 • Spring 2001
Meets MWF 11:00AM-12:00PM GAR 203
C2
(also listed as LIN 373)
PSY 394S • Current Topics In Devel Psy
39558 • Spring 2000
Meets F 3:30PM-6:30PM LAC 2.110D
Publications
Selected Representative Publications
Reyes-Jáquez, B., & Echols, C. H. (2013). Developmental differences in the relative weighing of informants’ social attributes. [Special issue on Selective Social Learning]. Developmental Psychology, 49, 602-613.
Krogh-Jespersen, S., & Echols, C.H. (2012). The influence of speaker reliability on first versus second label learning. Child Development, 83,581-590.
Goldwater, M. B., Tomlinson, M. T., Echols, C. H., & Love, B. C. (2011). Structural priming as structure-mapping: Children use analogies from previous utterances to guide sentence production. Cognitive Science, 35, 156-170.
Echols, C. H., & Marti, C. N. (2004). The identification of words and their meanings: From perceptual biases to language specific cues. In D. G. Hall & S. R. Waxman (Eds.). Weaving a lexicon (pp. 41-78). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Childers, J. B., & Echols, C. H. (2004). Two 1/2-year-old children use animacy and syntax to learn a new noun. Infancy, 5, 109-125.
Koenig, M. A., & Echols, C. H. (2003). Infants’ understanding of false labeling events: The referential roles of words and the speakers who use them. Cognition, 87, 179-208.